Butch Jones excited for new Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez

CMU head football coach Butch Jones coached under Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia in 2005 and 2006. Jones believes Michigan hit a home run in the Rodriguez hire, and tries to emulate Rodriguez in the way he runs the CMU program. It has obviously been a successful approach to duplicate at CMU, as Jones led the team to a MAC Championship in his first season.

December 17, Detroit Free Press Jones flirted with the idea of attending Monday's press conference in Ann Arbor
to introduce Rodriguez as Michigan's new football coach. Instead, he stayed in Mt. Pleasant to continue preparing to play Purdue in the Motor City Bowl on Dec. 26 at Ford Field in Detroit. He said Rodriguez was a mentor and a close friend.

"He's a guy that has always been there for me when I needed to bounce ideas off or needed advice," Jones said.

He said he learned a lot in the two seasons he spent working for Rodriguez.

"He's a great individual to work for," Jones said. "Very energetic. Very passionate. He does a great job of creating a hard edge -- being able to get the most out of players. That's most important. Then he's a great teacher. The program was centered around a family atmosphere."

Jones tried to duplicate that approach when he took after as CMU's coach this season. The Chippewas repeated as Mid-American Conference champions but CMU players said the difference was they felt more like a family under Jones than under previous coach Brian Kelly.